Professor Sees Travel Study Program from New Perspective

Published Date: 08/19/2025

As each a coordinator of and a scholar in Carroll’s Travel Study program, Carroll English Professor Siobhan Wright not too long ago was capable of expertise one among these world journeys from two views—guiding vacationers by iconic locations whereas finishing her personal coursework alongside the best way.

Read how her distinctive twin position gave her a uncommon perception into how this system transforms lives, together with her personal.

Q: When did Carroll’s Travel Study program launch?

Siobhan Wright: The program began in about 1992 or 1993. It was began by former college members within the English division, Anne Weber and Suzanne Dixon. They ran that program for a very good ten years, on the finish of which they recruited Associate Professor of English David Fell. I began as a coordinator in 2014. My first journey with this system was to England.

You must be 18 years outdated to journey independently, however you may journey at 14 when you’re with an grownup. Travelers go all the best way as much as individuals of their 80s. So it extends from present college students to the grandparents of scholars. It’s a very various group of individuals when it comes to skill and age, pursuits and  schooling. Sometimes households go on the tour as small teams, similar to siblings or mom/daughter or father/daughter.

We design the journeys intently with a journey firm, Witte. They give us extra mid-range lodging, and it by no means splits up the group on completely different flights. You additionally get a Blue Ribbon Tour Guide, which is phenomenal. These tour guides graduated from elite establishments and have gone by a tour information program that’s terribly rigorous. You must know all the historic places of the nation that you just’re in. So a Blue Ribbon Tour Guide is like having a scholar who additionally likes good meals. They’re inspiring individuals.

Q: How many individuals usually go on a visit?

SW: Usually between 30 and 40. We virtually all the time promote out or come fairly near it.

Q: How do you resolve the place you’re going to go every year?

SW: In the world of journey guides, there are tiers of places. Tier 1 places are the nations with iconic websites, typically the primary locations individuals title after they wish to journey—the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, the Colosseum in Rome, the Parthenon in Athens. Ireland too has develop into a Tier 1. These Tier 1 places are usually those we go to. As for the way we choose them, we ask the earlier vacationers the place they wish to go, after which we select one and map out an itinerary.
 
Our vacationers come from three demographics. Credit college students are prioritized when selecting a location. We take into consideration the journey when it comes to what our Travel Study college students wish to see first, which could be very a lot the Tier 1 places. Our second demographic is the broader group, after which the third is inner. About 1/3 of the vacationers work for the College. We have a major variety of repeat vacationers. I’d say no less than a 3rd of the individuals on a visit have traveled with us earlier than.

Q: Travel Study known as an unbiased research course. What does that imply?

SW: It means you may earn school credit score for the journey. It’s three credit score hours. When they join, the Travel Study college students meet with their assigned professor forward of time. Their professor will ask them, “What are you getting a degree in?” The journey is then tailor-made to what the scholars are all for. There are literally 4 variations of the Travel Study class: English, Humanities, Art, and History. So it’s very humanities-driven.

As a Visual Arts scholar occurring the Ireland journey, I did loads of pre-trip analysis work, like studying an accredited textbook. On the journey, I stored a drawing journal on the tour and knowledge for particular person works of arts with artist statements. After I returned, I gave a presentation to my professor, Carroll’s Arts & Humanities Chair Jessi Hardesty.

Q: What do you most take pleasure in about being a coordinator for the Travel Study program?

SW: Bonding with different individuals. It’s the sort of expertise that you just solely have once you’re immersed with different people who find themselves collected collectively for one objective.

Q: What are the advantages of the Travel Study program, for these doing it for credit score?

SW: There’s nothing extra instructional than touring overseas. You are divorced from your house turf. I’ll offer you an instance from the very first journey to England. We had a woman who had by no means been any additional than Frederick, MD. She’d by no means been in an enormous metropolis. She’d by no means been on public transportation. By the top of the journey, she was navigating the crowds with ease. She was reworked. I noticed that with plenty of college students. It’s an incredible expertise.

Q: What was it like being each a coordinator and a scholar on the previous journey?

SW: Most individuals didn’t know I used to be enrolled within the Travel Study course. I just about stored the sketchbook off to the aspect, in order that when individuals requested, “What are you doing?,” I’m like, “I’m just learning to draw.” I used to be nonetheless a coordinator there, however the issues that I did as a scholar had been sort of invisible to them. I used to be a secret scholar!

Q: As a scholar within the Travel Study program, what was the general expertise like for you?

SW: It has been a such a treasured time being an artwork scholar right here. I took the Travel Study course to satisfy an artwork historical past requirement within the Visual Arts diploma program. Before the journey I learn a ebook on the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement, which was the subject for my course that we used to find out what I’d see in Ireland.

The Irish Arts and Crafts Movement parallels the broader Arts and Crafts Movement of William Morris on the flip of the twentieth century. Basically it’s a revolt towards know-how. Everything then was getting automated; chairs began being made in factories by an meeting line of individuals. In Ireland, they had been nervous about dropping the legacy of artistry. Irish poet W.B. Yeats had a collective of artists that included his brother and iconic painter Jack Yeats and each of his sisters, one among them educated in embroidery, the opposite in printmaking. There was such an effort to create an Irish iconography and an Irish character that went past spherical towers and shamrocks. Definitely gave me subject material to contemplate for my very own art work. It definitely knowledgeable how I perceive the position of visible artwork and literature in making a cultural identification.

Q: What made probably the most impression on you out of your Ireland journey?

SW: The factor that I feel was probably the most enthralling was that there’s this concerted effort to protect the creative legacy. I’ve examples of hand-painted linen that’s being offered in Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. And the printmaking world is vibrant in Ireland as properly. We don’t consider that as nonetheless an energetic medium for creative expression. The native artists there at present proceed to reside the legacy that was left for them. That’s very inspiring. I can nonetheless hop on that practice and be an energetic a part of that Irish legacy with my art work too.

Q: What recommendation would you give the scholars contemplating doing Travel Study?

SW: The hardest half is narrowing the scope of what you’re going to have a look at. You actually need assistance to start with discovering a spotlight. I needed to know a number of issues earlier than I left on the journey so I might ask the appropriate questions. Reading the assigned textbook forward of time helps you put together for the journey, work out what you’re going to do, and higher perceive the tasks, such because the presentation that you just’ll do on the on the finish of it. It provides you a framework for digesting what you’re seeing. It’s an exquisite train in designing your individual studying, however with loads of guardrails so that you don’t get off monitor. It’s enriched me, given me one thing else to understand on the planet.